Golez runs as independent

“If they declared war against me, let us give them love. If they will continue to harass me, let us forgive and pray for them. I see this election not as a contest of power but a test of our dignity, humility and faith in the Lord,” he said.

Golez said he is honored to file the COC for many reasons.

“With God as my witness, I have served and will continue to serve Bacolod with honesty and truthfulness. I have with me my Ombudsman clearance which simply tells everybody, ‘I am not a thief.’ I challenge those who will run against me in the coming elections to show the same documents before filing. I have an outstanding track record as a public servant,” he said.

“I have filed more than 200 bills in Congress. I have brought billions of pesos worth of infrastructures never done and seen before. To this effect, I was honored by being the Most Outstanding Congressman in 2011,” he added.

He said he filed with a progressive vision for Bacolod that will catapult the city and its people to greater heights.

“I will deliver our city and people from the bondage of thievery, mafianomics, illegal transactions, oppression of the poor and the helpless, morass of poverty, mendicancy, deception, gangsterism and moral degeneration. I may not have a perfect family life, but I am not a thief. Bacolod deserves clean and honest public servants. Let us heal Bacolod and make our people physically and spiritually healthy. Now, I will tell my detractors, it is now high time to move on to election time,” Golez said.

Golez said that he was adopted by Grupo Progreso in 2009 during the campaign. He was only used to help them clean their names.

“I was thrown away, all for a vested interest that a fellow will run for election. I was kicked out from the local NPC, but I will not resign from Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) but I will run as independent but still an NPC in my heart,” he said.

He said he does not have a slate.

“I know some friends who are running like Bobby Coscolluela, Archie Baribar and the likes, but we do not have any formal political party to belong to. So I am just running based on my vision, on my advocacy of being a Dungganon and being like one, we will not allow a person to lose our dignity. We will run under that advocacy,” he said.

If he were to rate his winnability from 1-10, Golez said he will base his answer on his strength and not based from his opponents' weakness.

He said has been an outstanding congressman and devoted his life for the past two years.

“I am part of the top 10 congressmen having the most number of bills filed in the 15th Congress,” he said.

Golez added, “If the people will base my winning in my track record, I will also base their winnings from their track records.”

On annulment

Meanwhile, Golez explained on the annulment of his marriage, saying if only he can answer all the claims in his annulment, he will answer it all, but the court limits him to do so.

As to his alleged affair with Jewel Mae Lobaton, Golez said, “Entering a person’s private life is the cheapest and the least kind of politics. I have said before that Jewel is a good friend and as you can see a special friend to me.”

“If you are going to ask me, are you romantically involved? Then I will say I am fully aware of the legal impediments. I am undergoing a process legally and she is also undergoing the same process, and we know our limitations. That is why we keep on doing projects, focusing our efforts and energies for projects here in Bacolod City,” he added. (Carla N. Canet)